Introduction. Digital inequality research has increasingly shown that internet access is not simply a matter of being online or offline, but additionally reflects differences in where and how people connect across daily environments. Drawing from later-life digital inclusion perspectives, access can be understood as a patterned resource shaped by mobility, functional capacity, and opportunities for engagement across settings. This distinction may be particularly important in later life, when functional limitations can shape mobility and the flexibility of digital engagement. Methods. Using a nationally representative sample of 32,837 adults aged 50 and older in the U.S. from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a federal household survey, this study examined whether functional difficulty was associated with three internet access patterns: access limited to home, access across home and outside settings, and access limited to outside settings (e.g., library). Multinomial logistic regression models were estimated using internet-use supplement weights, adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Results. Functional difficulty was associated with a significantly higher likelihood of access limited to home rather than access limited to outside settings (RRR = 1.596, 95% CI [1.353, 1.883], p < .001). Functional difficulty was not significantly associated with access across home and outside settings compared to access limited to outside settings (RRR = 0.906, 95% CI [0.771, 1.065], p = .233). Older age and female gender were also associated with a greater likelihood of access limited to home, while a bachelor’s degree or above was linked to higher likelihood of access across home and outside settings. Conclusion. These data suggest that functional limitations may not always prevent internet access altogether, but may instead shape more constrained forms of connectivity centered at home. Moving beyond a binary view of access, this study highlights the importance of understanding digital inclusion in later life as patterned, location-dependent, and shaped by functional capacity.

Debates on aging populations often focus on pension systems and elderly care, while discussions on childhood policy center on education access and human capital formation. However, these conversations are rarely connected. This paper asks: Can early childhood investment reduce economic vulnerability in old age? By linking childhood development policies to long-term aging outcomes, the study challenges the tendency to treat childhood and aging as separate policy domains.

Drawing on human capital theory and life-course economics, the paper argues that investments in early childhood such as nutrition, basic education, and cognitive development have cumulative effects that shape employment stability, earnings trajectories, savings capacity, and health outcomes across the lifespan. Weak childhood foundations in many developing economies contribute not only to youth unemployment but also to insecure and informal labor patterns that extend into later life, increasing the risk of elderly poverty.

Using demographic and labor market trends from emerging economies, the study explores how insufficient childhood investment can create long-term fiscal pressure on social protection systems. It further examines whether strengthening early-life policy interventions may serve as a preventative strategy against old-age vulnerability, reducing reliance on reactive pension reforms.

By integrating childhood, youth labor transitions, and aging outcomes into a single analytical framework, this paper contributes to ongoing discussions in Aging, Childhood and Youth Studies. It proposes that sustainable aging policy must begin not in retirement planning, but in early childhood development, reframing intergenerational policy design as a long-term economic strategy rather than a short-term social response.

Introduction

Population ageing has significant social and economic implications across sectors including health, urban planning, technology, education, and public policy. However, education on ageing remains largely concentrated within health and social care disciplines, limiting broader societal and workforce preparedness. Higher education institutions have a key role in shaping professional competencies and social responses to demographic change. This paper outlines a proposal for integrating ageing across higher education curricula as a foundation for developing age-friendly communities.

Methods

This paper adopts a conceptual and policy-informed approach. Drawing on demographic trends, international healthy ageing frameworks, and existing models of ageing education, the current status of ageing content within higher education was examined. A proposed framework for curriculum integration across faculties is presented, focusing on embedding ageing literacy within teaching, research, and service functions.

Results

Ageing education is commonly siloed, resulting in fragmented understanding among graduates in non-health disciplines. The proposed curriculum framework illustrates how ageing-related content can be integrated across faculties such as health sciences, social sciences, technology, and the built environment. This approach highlights potential advantages, including improved ageing literacy, reduced ageism, and better preparation of graduates to engage with ageing populations in diverse professional contexts.

Conclusions

Integrating ageing across higher education curricula represents a strategic and upstream response to population ageing. As universities are key contributors to ageing literacy and workforce preparedness, this approach offers a practical pathway towards more inclusive, age-friendly societies. Future work should focus on piloting and evaluating such curriculum models in different institutional and cultural contexts.

The notion of childhood in India is undergoing rapid transformation, driven by digitization, social media exposure, and evolving socio-economic structures. This paper explores how the Indian judiciary has navigated these changes through the interpretation of child rights and juvenile justice principles. Grounded in landmark judgments such as Pratap Singh v. State of Jharkhand (2005) 3 SCC 551, Shilpa Mittal v. State (NCT of Delhi) (2020) 2 SCC 787, and Bachpan Bachao Andolan v. Union of India (2013) 3 SCC 598, the study analyzes how courts have balanced culpability, rehabilitation, and protection under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. It highlights how legal discourse around “childhood” now extends into digital spaces—covering issues of cyber exploitation, online grooming, and data privacy of minors. By integrating sociological insights with jurisprudential analysis, the research proposes a conceptual model of “Digital Childhood Justice,” emphasizing restorative justice, digital literacy, and psychosocial rehabilitation as key pillars of youth protection. The study further examines the ethical challenges of AI-driven surveillance in educational and juvenile reform institutions, urging policy alignment between child protection law, technology regulation, and education reform. Ultimately, it argues that safeguarding childhood in the 21st century requires not only compassionate legal interpretation but also proactive digital governance rooted in equity and human dignity. It concludes with a call for a national framework on digital childhood rights integrating education, justice, and cyber ethics.

Introduction:

In the current era of late modernity, generation z is subject to strong forces of individualization, as well as fluid social processes and high levels of uncertainty. The process of identity formation is becoming more self-directed and is being constructed in a reflexive manner, which is subjecting this generation to much higher levels of emotional demands. We explore the role of structural conditions as such on emotional regulation and attachment patterns.

Methods:

This study uses a narrative approach to combine sociological and psychological theories of liquid modernity, individualization, risk, emotional capitalism, attachment, and regulation into a coherent story. By means of an integrative conceptual analysis, it constructs a cross-level model that links macro-social circumstances with the internal processes of self-regulation and relationship dynamics among Generation Z individuals.

Results:

There is a definite contradiction throughout the study: while individuals are attempting to form their own identities, they are left with even more on their shoulder, as they are constantly observing their emotional equilibrium. In a “liquid modern society,” as it is described, the nature of relationships is precarious and conditional, making vulnerability a danger in relationship with others. When the value of intimacy is measured against the risk factor and becomes more of a quasi-market assessment, individuals are likely to find themselves moving away from emotional relationships and binding ties as a form of coping strategy.

Conclusions:

Lack of emotional attachment or emotional detachment is not only a dispositional weakness but also a coping strategy developed by the social structures of today. Nevertheless, humans need social attachment for psychological regulation. Avoidance can lead to an escalation of self-criticism, anxiety, and rumination. The study offers an interdisciplinary sociopsychological framework to understand the avoidance of relationships by Generation Z within larger socio-structural changes.

Introduction

Adolescence is a crucial stage in the emergence and consolidation of fraudulent behaviours such as bullying, due to factors such as the need to belong to a peer group and the processes of constructing one's own identity. This study analyses how bullying behaviours manifest themselves among the adolescent population.

Methods

A sample of 129 adolescent students aged between 9 and 15 years old was used. The AVE test was used as a diagnostic tool to prevent, identify and treat the problem of bullying.

Results

The results show that around 24% of the sample was in a situation of victimisation or at risk of harassment, while the remaining 76% showed no signs of suffering from it. Analysis of the relationships between the different types of bullying indicated that some forms of violence appear independently: assaults, threats, social exclusion, coercion and exclusion. However, some specific associations were observed: bullying was related to assaults and threats; intimidation was linked to assaults, social exclusion and bullying; and manipulation was linked to social exclusion.

Although gender differences were not significant, it was observed that the percentage of girls who reported being victims of bullying was higher than that of boys in all types of bullying, especially in assaults, threats, intimidation, and manipulation.

Conclusions

The results reveal that bullying in adolescence is a phenomenon that can take different forms depending on gender. This highlights the need to design awareness-raising and prevention interventions against bullying during this stage of education. Furthermore, future research should delve deeper into other manifestations of peer violence, such as sexual harassment, given its relevance in the literature on adolescence.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly shapes contemporary human experience, influencing critical domains such as employment, healthcare, education, finance, and digital governance. Despite its promise of neutrality and efficiency, growing empirical research demonstrates that AI systems frequently reproduce and intensify existing gender inequalities embedded within historical data, algorithmic design, and socio-technical infrastructures. These algorithmic biases disproportionately marginalize women and other vulnerable groups, thereby raising profound ethical, social, and theological concerns. This study critically examines the phenomenon of gender bias in AI through the normative framework of Islamic principles of justice (ʿadl) and human dignity (karāmat al-insān).
Grounded in Qur’anic teachings and Prophetic traditions, Islam articulates a comprehensive moral vision rooted in equity, accountability, and the inherent dignity of every human being. The paper argues that these foundational principles provide a robust ethical paradigm for evaluating and regulating emerging technologies. By engaging contemporary case studies including discriminatory hiring algorithms, biased facial recognition systems, and gendered patterns of digital surveillance, this study highlights how algorithmic systems can conflict with the Islamic commitment to fairness, non-harm (la darar wa la dirar), and social responsibility.
Methodologically, this study adopts a qualitative analytical approach, synthesizing interdisciplinary scholarship from gender studies, AI ethics, and Islamic intellectual tradition. It proposes a faith-informed ethical framework that emphasizes transparency, inclusivity, accountability, and moral intentionality in AI development and governance.
The paper concludes that confronting gender bias in AI is not solely a technical correction but also a moral and civilizational responsibility. Islamic ethical thought offers valuable normative resources capable of contributing to global AI governance debates, ensuring that technological advancement remains aligned with justice, dignity, and human flourishing.

In recent years, the story of Su Min, a middle-aged Chinese woman who left an unhappy marriage and began documenting her solo road trips on social media, has circulated widely across Chinese digital platforms. Almost immediately, online commentators framed her action as an instance of “chuzou” (出走) which literally means “walking out,” but which also carries connotations of escape, breaking free, and refusal. This study argues that the rapid attachment of this label reveals the persistence of chuzou as a cultural keyword in contemporary Chinese discourse. Drawing on Raymond Williams’ concept of “keywords”, this study examines how it condenses layered literary memories, feminist aspirations, and ongoing social anxieties surrounding gender, family, and mobility.

Historically, chuzou is deeply embedded in modern Chinese cultural history, most famously associated with debates over “Nora’s departure” following the Chinese reception of A Doll's House in the early 20^th century. Since then, this figure has served as a powerful symbol in discussions of women’s emancipation. In contemporary digital culture, however, the term has been revived in new ways. Chuzou increasingly operates as a flexible interpretive label through which online users frame diverse acts of female mobility, from leaving marriages to rejecting filial expectations, including viral online discussions such as the so-called “unfilial daughter’s departure” during the 2026 Spring Festival.

Based on a qualitative discourse analysis of social media posts, comment threads, and related online discussions, this study traces how chuzou travels across literary, cultural, and digital contexts. It shows how online publics rely on historically sedimented cultural vocabulary to interpret contemporary social events: how a historically rooted feminist term has become a shared interpretive frame through which internet users debate women’s mobility, family obligations, and the legitimacy of leaving marriage in contemporary China.

Introduction:

Modern academic scholarship is often presented as neutral, objective, and value-free. Feminist scholarship, however, has long challenged this assumption by demonstrating that knowledge production is embedded within relations of power, institutional norms, and epistemic hierarchies. This paper examines the conditions under which research becomes possible in contemporary academia by analysing how epistemic power and institutional rationalities shape what counts as legitimate knowledge, who is recognised as a legitimate knower, and which forms of research are enabled or marginalised.

Methods:

The study adopts a theoretical and conceptual approach grounded in feminist epistemology, critical theory, and the sociology of knowledge. It conceptualises academia as a cultural system structured by institutional rationalities such as productivity metrics, funding regimes, audit cultures, and the growing demand for measurable impact. Analytical insights are drawn from feminist concepts, including situated knowledge, standpoint theory, and epistemic injustice.

Results:

The analysis demonstrates that institutional rationalities do not merely regulate research administratively but actively shape epistemic values and research priorities. They privilege particular methodologies, disciplines, and research agendas while marginalising critical, reflexive, and interdisciplinary forms of inquiry. These dynamics disproportionately affect women, early-career scholars, and researchers engaged in critical, decolonial, or non-mainstream scholarship, particularly in the Global South. Furthermore, these institutional expectations become internalised through everyday academic practices such as grant writing, peer review, publication standards, and evaluation systems, thereby reproducing dominant knowledge traditions.

Conclusion:

By framing research as a cultural and political practice, this paper contributes to debates on the politics of knowledge production in contemporary academia. It argues that feminist critique provides both an analytical and ethical framework for rethinking research cultures and calls for more inclusive, reflexive, and socially responsible conditions for knowledge production.

Menstrual health is not just a biological concern; it is an understudied dimension of public health and human capital formation, shaped by education, sanitation infrastructure and prevailing social norms. Menstruation is a normal part of life for most women and girls, yet cultural taboos and a lack of information continue to influence how it is understood and managed.
This paper examines the role of literacy and structural factors on menstrual health practices among women in India. This study uses secondary data from NFHS-5 to focus on state-level variations in the use of hygienic menstrual methods and behavioural practices.
This research uses descriptive analysis to identify regional differences in menstrual health outcomes and determine the relationship between literacy levels of women, access to household sanitation amenities, adolescent childbearing, and menstrual hygiene behaviour. Regression analysis has been used to measure the effect of literacy and structural factors on menstrual health practices across states and union territories.
This paper aims to inform policy discussions on gender-responsive interventions in human capital and development by situating menstrual health within a broader context of human capital and development. Empowering literacy and enhancing access to basic sanitation have become essential elements of inclusive developmental approaches to menstrual health inequities in India.